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Martijn Arets

International expert on the emergence and development of the collaborative economy

Martijn Arets is an international expert and thinker in the field of the emergence and development of the collaborative economy: sharing economy, gig economy, crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. Since 5 years old Martijn has been traveling the world to (so far) talk to 400+ entrepreneurs, experts and other stakeholders in 13 countries behind the upcoming collaborative economy. To find out what is really happening, who the stakeholders are, what the main dilemmas are, and what has to change to get the full potential in a sustainable way out of this transition.

Martijn advises corporations, national governments and local governments like the city of Amsterdam. He has shared his story and thoughts during several hundreds of keynotes around the world: from TEDx in Greece to the Crowdsourcing Week Arctic Circle. Martijn runs his own advisory company and is a part time researcher on platforms at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University.

In 2011, Martijn was elected ‘Best Dutch Entrepreneur 2011’. In 2012, Martijn was asked to join the European Young Leader program ‘40 under 40’. Martijn is author of ‘Brand Expedition, a journey visiting Europe’s most inspiring brands’, ‘Crowdfunding, beyond the hype’, ‘Crowdfunding for Dummies’ and has published over 300 videos on his Crowd Expedition YouTube channel. In 2018 he will release 2 books: ‘Platformrevolution’ and ‘Wavemakers’. Besides all his expeditions he is the proud father of Joep (4) and Sophie (2).

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Martjin Arets, an international expert on the emergence and development of the collaborative economy, has studied and discussed the sharing economy in many European countries. Arets sees a difference between sharing economy innovation in the northern half of the continent, which he says is focused more on online platforms, and the southern half, which is focused more on offline sharing, like cooperatives.